Guests are music to kids' ears

Published 12:00 am, Thursday, March 16, 2006

Clad in different colored T-shirts emblazoned with their names and yellow baseball caps, the Cavani String Quarter ruled Monday at Reed Intermediate School.

The Cleveland-based quartet,
Annie Fullard
, Mari Soto,
Kirsten Docter
and
Merry Peckham
, were guests of the Newtown Friends of Music Outreach Program. The program enables professional musicians to share their expertise with the town's public school students.

"It's satisfying to play for audiences of all ages in different places," Fullard said. "Kids are a blast to work with. It's fun."

The four women delivered the program's theme - fugues - to more than 150 string instrument students using humor, compliments and a composition by Peckhem.

Sixth-grader
Chad Cullens
, who plays the violin, said they work well and have a pretty good teaching technique.

That technique went beyond Mozart, Bach and Beethoven or showing students how to better use their bodies when they play their instruments. It included a quick lesson on listening to music.

"There are three things you should do when hearing new music," Peckham said. "First, sit back, open your ears and mind and just listen; second, listen from your heart. See how the music makes you feel; and third, listen with your imagination. Ask yourself, 'Am I getting a story? An image?'"

This attention to detail - and a definite knack for lesson planning - earned Fullard, Soto, Docter and Peckham praise from their audience.

"I thought this performance was the best. They were very funny, especially when they wore sunglasses playing 'Surfin' USA,'''said fifth-grader and viola player Maria Biondi.

The piece, a California classic by the
Beach Boys
played a la fugue, was the quartet's finale.

"Spectacular," said fifth-grader and cellist Amy Martin.

Fifth-grade bass player
Nick Snyder
thought the quartet hit the right note, too.

"They're really good," he said. "They used their whole body when they played."

"They're serious musicians who know how to have fun and communicate with children like nobody else. They know how to get and keep kids' attention, and they've brought such a new level of expectation for the school outreach program."

If the students and audience was wowed, so was the quartet.

"This is one of the best audiences we're every played for," Fullard said.